The invention relates to a meat rolling device for processing pieces of meat. The device especially serves for tendering fresh meat without bone portion in the field of food with simultaneous surface increase.
The structure of fresh meat processed with such a device is lastingly changed or relaxed (tendered), respectively, and the meat appears to be softer and more tasteful upon consumption. With fresh meat of very different kind, however primarily meat from cow and pork, lasting quality improvement is achieved.
From DE A 33 44 284, a device for treating meat or ham is known, which is provided with a rack, in which at least two oppositely rotating rollers spaced side-by-side are disposed, between which the material to be treated is passed. The rollers are formed as pressure rollers and the distance thereof is mutually adjustable. The pressure rollers can be exchangeably attached in the rack, for which each pressure roller is connected to the drive shaft via a quick coupling on the drive side and is supported in a bearing assembly detachably connected to the rack on the other side. The pressure rollers can be provided with ribs, knobs, projections and the like on their peripheral walls. The ribs extending at least partially over the length of the pressure rollers are at least approximately rectangular, acute or frustum-like in cross-section. The disadvantage of this meat processing device is that the meat cells of the processed piece of meat are destructed by squeezing such that very much cell liquid escapes and thereby the storability of the processed piece of meat greatly decreases.
By the rolling operating, effective surface increase of the processed piece of meat (e.g. escalope meat from pork, pork neck steaks, pork tenderloin, beef tenderloin and the like) results. By the employment of such a rolling device, manual meat beating is spared, wherein the fresh meat is flattened in its consistency by beating action with the corresponding working tool. Therein, massive escape of cell liquid occurs. This escape of cell liquid in turn results in contaminated working place and in measurable lost of weight of the processed fresh meat after beating of meat. Beaten fresh meat also easily dries out.
Another advantage of a rolling device over the usual meat beating is in the far less time and force requirement and the working manner far gentler to the body in processing meat. It has also taken care of the tendons and joints of the beating person partially overstressed in the usual beating operation.
In this context, from European patent application EP 00 121 256, a meat roller is known, which includes a roller jacket in the form of a cylinder and a plurality of roller teeth on the surface of the roller jacket, which substantially extend along the axis of the cylinder, wherein each one of the plurality of roller teeth has a first surface lying substantially on a plane through the axis of the cylinder, and a second surface disposed substantially perpendicularly to a first surface of a roller tooth adjacent in circumferential direction.